Ye Olde School Cafe’: Essential Ghost Rider vol. 1 pt 4

Hello ComicAttack.net faithful, and welcome back to another week in Ye Olde School Cafe’! In this week’s pulse-pounding edition, we’ll close the book on Ghost Rider, but also move right into our next Marvel Horror cast member, Daimon Hellstrom! Yes, at the end of Ghost Rider’s Marvel Spotlight run, he branched off into his own book, but the first issues were a crossover with Hellstrom’s first appearance in that same book (Marvel Spotlight). So fasten your seatbelts and grab some holy water, because this is going to be a demon possessed trip!

As we left off last week, Ghost Rider had just displayed some of his power by blasting Snake Dance and his followers’ sacred grounds. While some of Snake Dance’s followers are trying to revolt against him, Ghost Rider takes Roxanne to the hospital for medical attention after she was bitten by a poisonous snake (last issue). The hospital doesn’t have any anti-venom though, but Snake Dance does and he isn’t giving it up. Linda Little-Trees feels sorry for Roxanne and steals it from Snake Dance. Linda then takes it to the hospital and the doctors administer it to Roxanne, and it saves her life.

We next see Ghost Rider whipping around town killing time, while the doctors try to save Roxanne. Little does Johnny know, that Linda Little-Trees is also the infamous Witch-Woman. She’s a servant of Satan and the daughter of Snake Dance, as well. She surprises Ghost Rider, and tells him that she means to kill him in the name of her master! She then tells GR about how she became a servant of Satan when she went away from the reservation to school in the east. Her roommate was part of a group that worshiped Satan, and they sacrificed her, but then Satan apparently restored her immediately. While Witch-Woman is going on with her tale, Ghost Rider manages to escape and hop on his motorcycle. From that point, they battle back and forth, but GR just wants to escape and see if Roxanne is doing OK.

After her failure to capture Johnny, Witch-Woman is then approached by her master and he isn’t pleased with her efforts. He then uses his fiery powers to engulf her, and then we switch back to GR riding through town. Johnny then hears a voice and glances back toward the desert. He sees the Witch-Woman, and then hears her speak. She tells him that since she has failed her master, she must sacrifice herself to him. She then sets herself on fire and does a swan dive off of the top of the old ruins. Ghost Rider turns away in disgust as the foolish woman seemingly plunges to her death.

From here on out, Ghost Rider received his own monthly book in September of 1973. In his first issue, we see a mysterious figure walking through a cemetery towards a grave. The headstone reads…Victoria Hellstrom – Born March 4th, 1928 – Died Aug. 21st, 1953. And this is where we will stop for this week, but tune in next week for the exciting crossover and origin of Daimon Hellstrom, A.K.A. The Son of Satan!